Federation for Human Rights

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The Association for Human Rights (BfM) was an organization of bisexual and homosexual women and men as well as trans people during the Weimar Republic .

History and seat of the association

In 1920 the association was founded in Berlin under the name of the German Friendship Association (DFV). In 1923 the name of the association was changed to Bund für Menschenrechte .

The seat of the DFV was in Berlin-Kreuzberg . Initially, the association's office was at Alexandrinenstrasse 8 at the Karl Schultz publishing house , which among other things published the magazine “ Die Freund” , where Max Danielsen was editor. After the Schultz publishing house moved to Planufer 5 in May 1920 , the DFV moved with them and was given two offices there. From January 1921 the office of the DFV went to the private address of the chairman Wilhelm Dillmann in Brandenburgstrasse 78/79 (today: Lobeckstrasse ) in Berlin. Albert Eggert and Hans Schmainta were elected to the first board in 1920. The first seat of the association was in 1920 at Große Frankfurter Straße 138 at v. Saleski in Berlin-Friedrichshain .

On December 5, 1922, a new board was elected at a general assembly. First chairman was Carl Terlicher and his deputy Leopold Strehlow . Secretary were Paul Weber , Secretary of Lichterfelde, and the first woman with Else carbon .

On May 11, 1923, the German entrepreneur and publisher Friedrich Radszuweit (1876–1932) was elected as the successor to Carl Terlicher as president of the association. Under the presidency of Radszuweit, the BfM was first seated at Schliemannstrasse 15 in Prenzlauer Berg , then Kaiser-Friedrichstrasse in Pankow and, from 1926 to 1933, Neue Jakobstrasse 9 in Berlin-Mitte, where the association had its own bookshop.

Advertisement by the Kleist casino from The Friendship Gazette, No. 10, 1928
Logo of the magazine The Girlfriend

From 1923 to 1933, Radszuweit's own publishing house published the monthly association magazine Blätter für Menschenrecht for members of the BfM and the weekly magazine Das Freundsblatt.

The magazine Die Freund , which was organized by the Verein für Menschenrecht (Human Rights Association), appeared in Berlin from 1924 to 1933 and was also printed by Radszuweit in Berlin. There was Bruno Balz editor of the magazine.

In 1924, the organizers Käthe Reinhardt and Lotte Hahm and a short time later the prominent activist of the lesbian movement Selli Engler joined the association.

In March 1925, the German Friendship Association was re-established in Berlin as a split from the BfM by dissatisfied and excluded. These two organizations dominated, in particular in the form of the respective affiliated publishers, who printed numerous gay and lesbian magazines of those years, in addition to the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (WhK) of Magnus Hirschfeld with the yearbook for sexual intermediate stages , the magazine The Friendship from the publisher Karl Schultz and the magazine Der Eigen from the organization “ Community of Own ” under Adolf Brand in the 1920s and early 1930s the discourses of the first homosexual movement in Germany.

According to its own statements, the association had almost 50,000 members in those years of the Weimar Republic. The number should be compared with the roughly 2,000 to around 3,000 members that Adolf Brand's second largest homosexual literary association, "Community of Own", had.

After the death of Radszuweit's club president in 1932, Paul Weber became Radszuweit's successor on September 17, 1932. On November 9, 1934, Paul Weber applied for the association to be deleted, giving the reason that there were only three registered members. On January 6, 1936, the Federation for Human Rights was officially deleted from the register of associations.

Goals / ideals

The association campaigned for the rights of homosexual people and demanded the abolition of § 175 , which ultimately did not succeed in those years of the Weimar Republic. Various publications by the association served to provide information about the situation of bisexual and homosexual people and to entertain the members.

literature

  • Kleist Casino (1921–1933) - men for sale. In: Andreas Pretzel: Historical places and dazzling personalities in the Schöneberg Regenbogenkiez - From Dorian Gray to Eldorado. o. J. (2012?), pp. 21-29.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Stefan Micheler: Magazines, associations and bars of same-sex desirous people during the Weimar Republic. (pdf; 494 kB) In: stefanmicheler.de. August 1, 2008, p. 7 , accessed August 17, 2020 .